You can get a little music from a lot of places, but Spotify is on a quest to be your omni-jukebox. It’s already offers on-demand streaming and radio, and it’s just launched Browse, a new way to discover critic and community playlists for different moods and genres. Spotify hopes to combine social, algorithms, and expert curation to beat the platforms and become the only music companion you need.
“It’s a really good time to be in music ” Spotify product manager Miles Lennon tells me. “Five years ago people wrote off the ability for music startups to succeed. We’re really happy to be part of a resurgence.”
The only problem is music is becoming a commodity. Every smartphone manufacturer and operating system want to have their own music service, because the iPod proved that music is a fundamental part of the mobile experience. Apple has iTunes, and soon iTunes Radio. Google just launched Google Play Music All Access. Nokia and Samsung have their own, while HTC bought MOG. They all have the benefit of device pre-installations or preferred access.
How can Spotify compete? By being a music company. Not a “media company” that dabbles in video and books. Not an advertising company that uses music as a medium. And not a hardware company looking to round out its offering. Spotify just has to be a music company 100%.
That’s the plan. Spotify now has over 24 million active users and over 6 million premium subscribers. A spokesman says its global headcount is now around 800, and financial filings show it doubled its revenue in 2012 to $533 million.
It’s a good start, but Spotify is still struggling to convince people music is worth listening to ads or paying for after the Napster era convinced the world that music is free. Spotify Director and Napster co-founder Sean Parker has said that the only way to beat piracy is with convenience and accessibility,
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